Word: angkor
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ETCHED majestically against the endless green curtain of Cambodia's jungle, the graceful colonnades and parapets of Angkor memorialize a civilization that ruled most of Indochina nearly 1,000 years ago. Last week, in the war that will determine Indochina's future rulers, Vietnamese Communist troops occupied parts of the massive, ancient complex, scattering storage areas, hospitals and military emplacements near its statuary and intricately carved walls. For the first time since 1431, when the forebears of modern Thailand pillaged Angkor, the seat of Khmer culture was occupied by foreigners...
...Communist presence in the ruins of Angkor was symptomatic of the war's tidal movement throughout Indochina. In supposedly neutral Laos, North Vietnamese forces overran and held the southern provincial capital of Saravane, which has for two years been a U.S. air-supplied island within the Communist-held countryside. The city's fall could well indicate that the Communists, who already control most of northeastern Laos, intend to tighten their grip on the country's southern reaches. In South Viet Nam, the Communists continued to step up the fighting in the northernmost I Corps with shellings, sapper...
...less than two weeks, continued to uncover rich veins of buried Communist supplies in the sanctuary areas. But the U.S. sweep seemed only to push the Communist forces deeper into Cambodia. Roving forces of Communist troops kept pressure on three provincial capitals, including Siem Reap. the gateway to Angkor, and Kompong Speu, only 24 miles southwest of the capital, Phnom-Penh. The widening Communist attacks spread Premier Lon Nol's forces so thin that his strategists were seriously discussing a kind of grand enclave plan for the country. The Cambodian army would pull back to a corridor stretching from...
This plan would leave the government of Lon Nol with roughly half the country to defend, including the fish-and rice-producing region around the Tonle Sap and the Angkor area. The regions given over to the Communists would include the northeast, where they already dominate, the eastern border regions and the rugged Cardamom Mountains in the southwest...
...modern airport four miles to the northwest, the government committed nine battalions, including a full brigade of paratroopers, one of the few elite military units in Cambodia. The Cambodians managed to secure the city and airport. But the Communists continued to roam at will throughout the countryside, including the Angkor ruins, which the government declared an "open city" to prevent any battle damage. From art lovers around the world came messages appealing for both sides to consider the priceless ruins neutral. At week's end a convoy evacuated Angkor's French caretakers, including Curator Bernard Groslier. Scattered fighting...